Subject: DARWIN AWARDS NEWSLETTER - June 2009

Readers, I am reluctant to become a public figure because I am
hideously ugly, but now you can see the good, the bad, the ugly
filmed at a Commonwealth Club talk.  Now that I am a reluctant
public figure, can youTube videos be far behind?  Please pardon
the stuttering and random pauses.

http://digg.com/people/The_5_Rules_of_Winning_a_Darwin_Award
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FOOLS GOLD - darwin award

February 2009, India | For lottery agent Pravin Kuse, his number
was up when he followed his dream and decided to dig for a pot of
gold.  A bachelor, Kuse, 32, lived with his brother's family in
Vasai, India.  According to his aged mother, Kuse had learned in a
dream that an ancient pot of gold was buried beneath his
abandoned 100-year-old house, located a few meters from his
current residence.  He warned his mother not to tell anyone about
the dream, fearing that it would result in a fight over the
fortune.

Some legends hold that a pot of gold lies at the end of the
rainbow.  But Kuse's dream told him to dig beneath the staircase
of the old house.  After lunch, every day without fail, Kuse would
take his spade and dig a few meters further beneath the
stairs..  This innovative gold-digger had even purchased a toy car
and attached a flashlight to it to assist him while digging in
the dark.  The neighbors had no idea that days and nights of
digging had resulted in a 15-foot deep tunnel.

One day Kuse did not return home.  His worried relatives lodged a
missing persons complaint and police were dispatched to the old
house.  Within a few hours, an earthmover had excavated Kuse's
body from the debris.  At a depth of 15 feet, the soil becomes
moist due to its proximity to the sea.  and it was determined that
the floor of the house had caved in over Kuse.  Authorities
registered a case of accidental death and recovered the spade and
the innovative mobile flashlight from the site.

In searching for a pot of gold, Kuse may not have had the luck of
the Irish, but he does have the distinction of winning a Darwin
Award.

http://www.darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin2009-01.html
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HOT BUNS -- near miss

Sweden | Welcome to Sweden. Home of Swedish massage, Swedish
cuckoos, and one Swedish meatball who decided to warm himself
in an industrial strength oven.

The incident took place in freezing February at a facility
operated by Ballingsl'v, a maker of kitchen and bathroom cabinets
and fixtures. The heating system in the loading area had ceased
to function, leaving a shivering truck driver defenseless against
the frigid winter.

Looking to escape the cold, the driver wandered over to the
shrink-wrap oven and asked the operator if he could take a spin
on the conveyor belt to get warm. Although the driver was
freezing his umlaut off, the operator hard-heartedly--if
sensibly--denied the man's request.

Undaunted, the driver waited until no one was looking, and
managed to hoist himself onto the conveyor belt for a blissfully
toasty ride. But all those Swedish meatballs had taken their
toll. The massive trucker was too heavy for the belt and the
motor shut down, leaving him stuck in the 360-degree oven.

Luckily, the alert oven operator noticed the stoppage and was
able to drag the man out of the searing heat before he sustained
serious injuries, except for an industrial strength tan.

Following the incident, Sweden's Work Environment Authority asked
that the oven operator be given counseling to work through the
shock he suffered rescuing the truck driver. In addition, the
agency intends to carry out a risk assessment of the surveillance
around the shrink ovens. Apparently they are too tempting to
leave unguarded. Common sense can be shrink-wrapped too.

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Seeking Halloween Costume Ideas --

Halloween and Darwin Awards go together like blood and guts.  We
wackos at DA Central thought it might be fun to create a set of
Darwin-themed costumes for Halloween.   In 1988 the Halloween
Winner tried to impersonate Dracula & accidentally pounded a
stake through his heart.   The 1998 Halloween Winner who wanted
to be a mummy wrapped himself from head to toe in cotton gauze,
then lit a smoke.   What's your idea for a Darwin Award costume?

http://www.DarwinAwards.com/halloween.html